S/PLI/T: First, let’s talk about the theme and the title, BY/PRODUCT, and how that concept ties into your work.Becca Hall: The underlying theme in my work is environmental disaster through mining. A lot of disasters that have been happening around the world are due to the byproducts of mining leaving huge piles of slag that get leached into the water sources, or leaving huge mountains of sulfur around, thus poisoning the environment around it. I think that’s the most direct connection within the work.

S/: You talked about alchemy in your statement and I’m curious to know what about alchemy intrigues you? When did you first become interested in it? BH: I first became interested in alchemy in undergrad when I went to the National Art Library at the V&A (Victoria & Albert Museum) in London. I stumbled across this art book full of lithographs about really coded and complicated alchemical symbolism. I became obsessed with trying to decode it and figure out what everything meant. While I was doing that, I was also doing on-site research in coal mines in Pennsylvania. I had this “ah-ha” moment – I realized that alchemists are trying to speed up the production of gold because that’s what they think nature is already trying to do, trying to speed up a natural process. Through mining we’re trying to speed up natural processes of erosion, and that connection sort of clicked in my head.

S/: It’s interesting how by speeding up these processes we’re imposing these human value structures on nature. Like “Oh of course nature wants to produce gold… that is what we value as humans.”BH: Right, it’s a completely arbitrary assignment of value onto things that really are just of the earth. The alchemists were being funded by the aristocracy, so they had to try to make gold because that is what the aristocracy wanted. Then we just decided that we need all these things like diamonds and oil, and we’ll rip everything apart just to get them.

S/: There’s definitely a sense that it’s natural, and that’s what these companies try to say, like fracking is totally normal! BH: Yeah, except you’re ruining pretty much everything.

S/: We as humans are just taking resources out of the earth so much faster than they can be replaced by nature itself. BH: Yes, it takes billions of years to replenish and in a few years it’s just all being taken away.

S/: To continue this thread, your work is related to mining and the human’s effect on the environment. Do you engage with issues of the environment outside of your practice?BH: I think so. I try to be as mindful as I can with everything I do. I wouldn’t say I’m a straight up protestor; I wouldn’t call it activism, because I prefer to use my work as a subtle way to talk about these things instead of screaming “RECYCLE!” I think that’s already being done in so many ways, so for me its about creating work that will get your mind thinking and ticking about these things, and then maybe sometime down the line something will click and you’ll want to help and do something about it.

S/: What was the process of going out and collecting raw materials from the mine in Centralia and from your studio? How do you choose what to incorporate into the work?BH: Some of it is intuitive. A lot if it is trying to find artifacts of the destruction that happened in Centralia. I’d find piles of bricks around that were clearly the only thing left of someone’s home that was there. I also found chunks of anthracite coal, that’s a direct geological reference to what happened there. And then in my studio, I work with salt, rock and other natural material, and also things that I find in party stores such as glitter and confetti. Glitter and dirt, bricks and chunks of coal – they are all debris in a way, and aesthetically works with what I’m talking and thinking about.

S/: To loop back to our earlier conversation around human value systems with diamonds and gold, how does value come in? How do you make those decisions for yourself in reference to the materials you chose and how you assemble them?BH: A lot of the stuff I use is intentionally not valuable as determined by people. It’s more visually valuable to me. I use real gold when I guild things as a contrast to the plastic glittery trash. They both reflect light and are beautiful, though one is garbage and one is one of the most valued commodities we have.

S/: What are your influences in your practice? Are there artists or books that inspire you?BH: Artist-wise people like Rebeca Bollinger and Liam Gillick are definitely people who inspire me in terms of arrangement and assemblage of work, and all land artists: Robert Smithson, Nancy Holt… I don’t call myself a land artist at all but they’re sort of an art historical anchor for me. Then there are people like Giuseppe Penone and Jim Hodges who I find really materialistically fascinating and amazing.

The book I found in the V&A library is called Opus de Occulta Philosophia by Robert Schwarz. I actually contacted the author of the book and he was really surprised because he thought it wasn’t that popular. He said the coded symbols were intentionally mysterious because they wanted people who were interested in it to have to dig and figure it out for themselves. They didn’t want the church to stumble across their books and know exactly what they were doing. Obviously the church didn’t like alchemy.

S/: You just graduated from CCA. Congratulations! What’s next?BH: I have another show in Mill Valley in September. I’ve been applying to teaching jobs at colleges and universities. My main focus right now is to not to lose momentum or focus with making work. Just keep going.